New Wear Crossing Bridge Project

Sarens transports and raises a 1700T pylon from Belgium to the
United Kingdom

The New Wear Crossing bridge, a project of the city of
Sunderland in the UK, is currently under construction and is
scheduled to open in 2018. The bridge will span the River Wear from
Castletown to Pallion, and its centrepiece will be
a soaring 105m-high pylon.

Sarens has been entrusted with transporting and installing the
bridge's 1700T A-frame pylon, an operation that requires very
precise and detailed planning.

"The sheer size and weight of the pylon meant that it was never
going to be an easy task," says Jim Kilcar, Bridge Supervisor
for Atkins, which is supervising the New Wear Crossing project for
Sunderland City Council. "Therefore, specialists from Sarens
were brought in to devise and oversee operations."

As part of the operation's first phase, Sarens used barges
to transport the pylon from the Victor Buyck Steel Construction
yard in Ghent, Belgium to the city of Sunderland in the United
Kingdom, delivering it on January 7th, 2017.

Transporting the pylon was a challenging feat of engineering,
ingenuity, and teamwork, but the Sarens team handled it with
well-coordinated expertise.

"Sarens handles heavy and complex cargo worldwide," says
Carl Sarens, Director of Global Operations and Technical Solutions,
Projects & Engineering. "But being involved in the
transport of the pylon, and then raising it on site in a few
weeks' time, is extremely complex and has required detailed
in-house engineering expertise, working in close collaboration with
the Farrans Victor Buyck (FVB) team."

"The first challenge was slowly manoeuvering the pylon
out of the fabrication yard and onto the two canal
barges," explains Carl Sarens.

The pylon had to be jacked down onto Sarens' twin barges,
Jozef-Rosa and Karel-Victor, using a combination of
Sarens' PJ250 jacking system and jack & pack with 52 axle
lines SPMT. During the two-day loading process, the barges were
moored with a variety of hydraulic winches.

"This was a slow process because the ballast of the barges had
to be carefully adjusted throughout the operation," Carl
Sarens says.

Once the pylon was secured, the team had to manoeuvre it along
tight canals, under a series of low bridges, and into the Port of
Ghent. During the journey, Sarens operators had only about 30cm of
margin on all sides of the pylon to clear the bridges.

In the Port of Ghent, the pylon was then
transferred to Sarens' larger sea-faring barge, Louis.
For this, the twin barges were first driven apart with SPMTs and
once they were adequately separated, the barge Louis was inserted
between them.

The pylon was transferred using SPMTs and ballasting of the
barges. Once onboard the Louis, the pylon was rotated 90°
and set down on its sea-fastening supports. Then, two weeks of
preparation followed before the barge was ready for its two-day sea
journey to Sunderland.

"We are delighted to have brought the pylon to Sunderland," Carl
Sarens says. "It is a magnificent structure, so we are looking
forward to seeing it raised into place."

The pylon's long journey came to a close this past
weekend, February 11th and 12th, when the
Sarens team carefully lifted and positioned it at its full
height.

Sarens wishes to commend project director Carl Sarens,
project manager/engineer Kenny Decoster, and site manager Ben Duym,
as well as our team of expert operators, for a successful
operation. A video of the pylon's journey
can be viewed here.